An employee at a mosquito net factory in Arusha, Tanzania, in 2004. Photograph: Gianluigi Guercia/AFP/Getty Images

African countries should emulate Asian models of regional development that encompass industrial policy and investment in infrastructure to boost trade among themselves, a UN report recommended on Thursday.

“The Mekong sub-region project was driven by the Asian Development Bank. What we found interesting was that it went beyond trade to include a common industrial policy, common investment policy and pulled up the poorest countries. We thought it was something African countries can learn from,”…